Monday, August 15, 2022

New Taiwan CODEL triggers more pushback from China

A play-by-play preview of the day's congressional news
Aug 15, 2022 View in browser
 
POLITICO Huddle

By Katherine Tully-McManus

With an assist from Andrew Desiderio

From left U.S. Democrat Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, left, and Democratic House member John Garamendi of California, second left, back, arrive with their wives at the parliament building in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen met Monday with a delegation of U.S. Congress members in a further sign of support among American lawmakers for the self-governing island that China claims as its own territory. (AP Photo/Johnson Lai)

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) arrive with their wives at the parliament building in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. | AP

TAIWAN TENSIONS, A SUMMER SEQUEL — The turmoil over Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent trip to Taiwan didn't deter a new group of House members from touching down on the island this weekend.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) led a delegation that landed in Taipei over the weekend. The move prompted China to announce more military drills around Taiwan, as U.S. lawmakers met with Taiwanese officials as well as private-sector leaders.

The additional military drills in the skies and seas were intended as a "resolute response and solemn deterrent against collusion and provocation between the U.S. and Taiwan," China's People's Liberation Army and the Chinese Defense Ministry said.

The CODEL, which comes less than two weeks after Pelosi's (D-Calif.) visit, includes Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Don Beyer (D-Va.), Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), and Del. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-American Samoa). Meetings focused on expanding economic cooperation, the semiconductor market and reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait. (The trip ramped up instead of quelling that tension.)

Rank and file lawmakers have visited the island many times before, but Pelosi's trip was especially significant given that it marked the highest ranking U.S. official to visit in 25 years.

 

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GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Monday, August 15, where we won't see an in-session day until September.

Rep. Liz Cheney delivers remarks during a committee hearing.

Rep. Liz Cheney delivers remarks during the fifth hearing on the Jan. 6 investigation on June 23, 2022 in Washington, D.C. | Win McNamee/Getty Images

CHANGES FOR CHENEY — Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is on tomorrow's primary ballot in Wyoming, fighting for her political life against Trump-backed GOP challenger Harriet Hageman.

But win or lose (with losing looking more likely) Cheney is also fighting to keep her mantle of leading the anti-Trump corner of the Republican party. Her major platform on the Jan. 6 select committee will continue through the end of this Congress, though it now shares investigative real estate and public attention with the Justice Department probes into Trump. Once behind the scenes, the DOJ effort exploded into public consciousness last week with the FBI's search for classified documents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.

"I don't think Liz is going to disappear," Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) told Olivia and Nicholas.

More from Olivia's dispatch from Jackson, Wyoming and Nicholas' reporting in Washington: Cheney's real mission: Keeping her anti-Trump megaphone

Jonathan Martin from The New York Times was also in Wyoming and digs into the end of the Cheney era in Wyoming politics: In Wyoming, Likely End of Cheney Dynasty Will Close a Political Era

RELATED: Cheney and Murkowski: Trump critics facing divergent futures, from Bekcy Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska for The Associated Press

AFGHANISTAN ANNIVERSARY — It was a year ago that Kabul fell to the Taliban. It marked a dark and chaotic end to America's 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Our Andrew Desiderio, Lara Seligman and Alex Ward dug into an 118-page report from House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans "that examines the actions by administrations of both parties that led to the collapse of Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government, as well as the failure to adequately plan for what became a chaotic and deadly withdrawal from the country."

The report finds that more than 800 Americans were helped out of the country after U.S. troops withdrew, and that hundreds more were left behind during the pullout than previously known. A State Department spokesperson told POLITICO that "at least 600 legal permanent residents" have been whisked out since the pullout was finished.

RELATED: One Year Later, Life Under Taliban Rule is Brutal, by Colin Clarke for POLITICO Magazine; A year after fall of Kabul, Afghan evacuees face uncertainty in U.S., from Caroline Simon at CQ Roll Call

LOOPING IN SENATE INTEL — The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee sent a letter Sunday to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting information on the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence last week.

The bipartisan request is for "the Department of Justice to share with us, on a classified basis, the specific intelligence documents seized from Mar-a-Lago," according to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the committee's GOP vice chairman. He sent his own solo request for info on the FBI's actions earlier.

"The Senate Intelligence Committee is charged with overseeing counterintelligence matters, including the handling and mishandling of classified information, which appears to be at the core of the search of Mar a Lago," said an Intel Committee spokesperson on Sunday.

Rubio and Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) want, in addition to the classified documents seized during the search, an "assessment of potential risks to national security as a result of their mishandling."

NOT SO SURPRISING — Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) axed a tax adjustment in the Democrats' recent tax, climate and health care bill that would have increased taxes on investment income, especially for private equity and hedge fund managers. The move is just the latest she's made to shield an industry that is also a major funder of her campaigns.

" Sinema has long aligned herself with the interests of private equity, hedge funds and venture capital, helping her net at least $1.5 million in campaign contributions since she was elected to the House a decade ago. But the $983,000 she has collected since last summer more than doubled what the industry donated to her during all of her preceding years in Congress combined," reports the Associated Press in a review of campaign finance disclosures.

ANOTHER BARRICADE INCIDENT — Just after 4 a.m. on Sunday a man died by suicide after driving his car into a vehicle barricade near the Capitol. After colliding with the barricade, the car burst into flames and Richard Aaron York III, the 29-year-old man from Delaware, exited the car, took out a handgun and started firing it "indiscriminately," according to Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger. As officers started approaching York, he shot himself dead

Police have said they do not think York was targeting members of Congress, given that both chambers are in recess. Nicholas has more on the situation.

The incident is reminiscent of an April 2021 incident when a driver rammed their car into a Constitution Avenue barricade and brandished a knife. USCP officer, Billy Evans, died as a result of being hit by the car.

 

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HUDDLE HOTDISH

He's running… You can find him sprinting for the Senate subway (best to get out of the way) or putting in some pre-dawn miles. It's no secret that Sen. Chuck Grassley is spry at age 88. A video posted last night spotlights his running routine.

QUICK LINKS 

Some Capitol rioters try to profit from their Jan. 6 crimes, from Michael Kunzelmen at The Associated Press

Decade after abduction, Austin Tice's parents say Biden has strategy to return their son , from Michael Wilner at The Miami Herald

TRANSITIONS 

Chloe Koseff is now a legislative assistant for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), covering energy and agriculture. She previously was a senior legislative assistant for Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.)

TODAY IN CONGRESS

The House and Senate are out.

AROUND THE HILL

Peace and quiet, it seems like.

TRIVIA

FRIDAY'S WINNER: Pat Bieze correctly answered that states and the national government were prohibited from using age as a reason to deny voting rights to anyone 18 and older in 1971, when the 26th amendment to the constitution was ratified.

TODAY'S QUESTION: Who was the first president inaugurated wearing pants rather than knee breeches?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to ktm@politico.com.

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Follow Katherine on Twitter @ktullymcmanus

 

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